Love Is Overdue (22 page)

“
No Jamaican man
likes himself a shy woman! No way – no how!” Tasha was
adamant.

“
Why are you
talking about me like I’m not even in the room?” I wanted to know,
but they both kept right on ignoring me.

Ben sucked his teeth at her.
“So now you suddenly the expert on alla us?” he teased her back. “I
don’t know what rock you grow up on anyway...sound to me like you
got some kinda Surrey accent...I guess you grow up near the
Skytrain line?”

Her
mouth flew open. “Oh no you
didn’t
! You did not just
call me a Surrey girl...
Gabby
...” She addressed me
finally.

I shook my head at Ben. “Bad
move.”

But Ben didn’t look
bothered. “So where you from then?”

“
Where you from?”
She challenged him instead.

“
Montego
Bay.”

She sucked her teeth. “You
see? You come from a resort town full of foreigners...now this shit
is starting to make sense.”

But Ben just
laughed. “Is this girl for real?” He posed it as a general question
and then turned to Tony. “Tony, where you from?”

“
Burnaby,” Tony
said simply, still busy with Ben’s blackberry.

Ben sucked his teeth as we
all laughed. “Case closed.”

Ω

After dessert
everyone started easing their way into the living room but as I
cleared the last of the dishes I noticed Ben holding back, looking
at a few pictures framed on the china hutch. A few of my mother
when she was younger back home in Sao Paulo, and two of my brother
and me when we were kids.

He stepped into the kitchen
behind me just as some Lauryn Hill started blasting from the
speakers in the living room, along with a lot of heated
conversation.

“
You want some
help?” He stepped up behind me, grabbing my ass
playfully.

“
Shit.” I almost
dropped the plate I was holding. I turned around and he pushed me
up against the counter, kissing me softly.

“
Thanks for
dinner,” he said as he pulled back.

“
Did you like
it?”

“
Of course...you
weren’t lying. You can cook for me anytime...”

“
Hmmm...they’re
getting pretty rowdy out there...” My voice trailed off as Ben
leaned over and kissed my ear.

“
I wanna get
rowdy with you. You gonna show me your bedroom later?”

I licked my lips and Ben
leaned over and kissed them just as Tasha came barging into the
kitchen.

She sucked her teeth. “That
time already? Daaamn...”

Ben laughed as
he pulled away from me. “Where’d you find those two?” He asked me,
fully aware that Tasha could hear every word.

Ω

“
I really don’t
think it’s a big deal...” Michelle was saying as we got back to the
living room.

“
It’s degrading,” Corinne interjected right away. “If a woman
needs to use any aspect of her sexuality toward financial gain, it
just justifies society’s objectification of women on a whole.
Period.”

“
Oh please...”
Michelle rolled her eyes. “If that’s true then you’re saying
there’s no difference between a hooker and a cocktail
waitress.”

“
Sometimes there
isn’t!” Corinne said dryly.

Michelle sighed. “Ask
Ben...he’ll tell you.”

Oh, here we go, I thought,
refilling my wine glass and taking a nice, long sip.

“
Ask me what?”
Ben wondered, taking my cue and filling up again as
well.

“
What’s the
difference between a hooker and a cocktail waitress?” Tasha
paraphrased, leaning back in her chair and crossing her
legs.

He laughed. “Is that a
serious question?”

“
Okay, if a woman
flirts with you, won’t you be inclined to tip her more?” Michelle
broke it down.

Ben leaned back into the
sofa. “Fuck, I’d be broke if I had to tip every woman that ever
flirted with me.”

Everyone laughed at that but
I just narrowed my eyes at him.

“
No!” Michelle
flipped her hair, smiling. “I mean a server, a waitress, a
bartender – those women.”

“
Well...” He
looked to be thinking about it seriously. “I mean, the better the
service, the better the tip, right?”

“
You see?”
Michelle turned back to Corinne. “Exactly my point.”

“
How does
flirting with anyone equal better service?” Corinne was not giving
up. “What if Tony was serving you? Would you tip him more too if he
flirted?”

That one made my ears perk
up as well as Tony’s. “Yeah, how about it, Ben?” I teased
him.

But Ben laughed at that.
“Nah...probably not. Sorry, man,” he addressed Tony
casually.

Tony just sighed, already
busy again with his phone. “It’s cool, it’s cool...”

I glanced over at him. “Wow,
Tony, cool it with the texting already...” He hadn’t been able to
put his phone down all night. Obviously Matt, his newest
flame...

“
Gabby, he’s just
up the street at Starbucks, why can’t I just -”

“
No,” I cut him
off. “No strange internet men coming to my house, I told
you...”

“
Oh come on...”
Michelle was really tipsy. “What harm could it do? We got a man
here to protect us.” She gestured toward Ben.

Tony shot me his puppy dog
eyes again.

“
Who is this guy
anyway?” I demanded. “What do you even know about him?”

“
Oh my god,
girl...” Tony’s tongue practically fell out of his
mouth.

“
Never mind.
Answer’s no.”

He sighed,
defeated.

“
Everybody hooks
up online nowadays.” Corinne didn’t seem bothered by it. “It’s just
the way it works now. I know every single one of us has done
it.”

“
Yeah, but...”
Michelle was laughing to herself. “Gabby, do you remember that time
you...oh wait, maybe I shouldn’t tell that story.”

I could tell Ben’s ears had
perked up. He raised his eyebrows quizzically.

“
Oh you see...now
he wants to know,” Michelle teased.

I sighed and glanced over at
him. “It was just...about a year ago I met a guy online and he sent
me a fake picture so...that didn’t go too well.”

“
No, no, no, tell
it right!” Michelle didn’t let up. “You left out the part about how
you were so scared to meet him that you did the phone thing for a
good three weeks – convinced he was some Lenny Kravitz double, but
who really turned out to look more like – what did you say
again?”

“
Flava Flav’s
ugly twin,” Tony chimed in.

Everyone cracked up at
that.

But Ben just smiled, meeting
my eyes. “That’s okay,” he said then. “Men can be very good liars
when they wanna be.”

“
Ain’t that the
truth,” Tony perked up momentarily again, then went right on
texting.

Corinne sighed then, pulling
out her stash of weed. “Are we cool to light up in here,
Gab?”

I nodded. “Yeah, it’s
cool...”

Ben leaned forward in his
seat. “Now y’all are speakin’ my language...”

Michelle got up out of her
seat and slid down on the couch between Ben and Corinne. “Here, I
wanna do it,” she said, taking the bag from Corinne.

Tony and Tasha both saw the
move and they lowered their eyes. She was starting to act a little
weird, I had to admit it myself.

I got up to change the
music. “What do we wanna listen to people?”

But no one was paying any
attention to me.

Ben was looking down at
Michelle’s pathetic rolling skills. “You want some help with that?”
he offered.

She smiled, tipping her head
to him. “You can see that, huh?”

Tony and Tasha exchanged
that look again.

“
Cool.” Ben took
over for her then. She seemed to put a little too much effort into
handing it over to him.

Since no one seemed to care,
I decided on some Florence and the Machine and after I set the
album to play I looked up to see Michelle admiring Ben’s rolling
skills.

“
Wow...impressive...” she cooed. “You must do this
often...”

Tasha looked over at Tony
and me and mouthed the words “What the fuck?” Tony glanced at me
and mouthed, “Do something!”, but I just ignored them.

Ben handed the joint back to
Michelle after he was done rolling it. She just ignored Corinne and
lit up taking a long drag, then turned back to Ben when she
exhaled, passing it over to him.

But Ben just shook his head.
“Nah...pass it that way first...” he nodded at Corinne. “Not my
weed.”

“
Oh right,”
Michelle recovered her manners and passed it to Corinne, who
snatched it away quickly.

I went and sat back on the
love seat, seeing as there was no more room on the couch, and as I
did Ben looked over and caught my eye, giving me a little
suggestive nod toward the hallway, reminding me of our earlier
conversation.

I smiled back at him,
realizing I had nothing to worry about.

Ω

“
So what the fuck
was that?” Tony was the first to voice it, once the giant elephant
named Michelle had officially left the building.

Corinne had to
practically pry Michelle’s arms off of Ben before dragging her ass
out the door to their waiting cab. Michelle had conveniently
decided to give every one of us a deliberate goodbye hug in order
to get her hands all over him. Fuck, that girl was
drunk...

Tasha was laughing. “No
shit. If it hadn’t been for all of us here she would have been all
up over alla that so fast...” She eyed Ben.

“
Maybe she was
just workin’ him for a tip,” Tony threw out and Ben laughed at that
as he leaned back on the sofa and peeked out the
curtains.

“
Shit, she about
to -” he started, bracing himself. “Oh no – she made it, Corinne
caught her.”

Tasha had an irritated look
in her eyes. “What the fuck kinda girl hits on her friend’s man
right in front of her face?” She just had to say it.

But Ben just sucked his
teeth. “She was just drunk...” He tried to dismiss it.

“
For
real, though,” Tasha wouldn’t let up. “I mean, you all right and
all – ” she nodded at Ben, “– but I’m sorry, I wouldn’t try to tap
that if you paid me...you know, because Gabby’s my girl...no
offense, Ben.”

“
It’s all good,
Tasha, I wouldn’t do you either,” Ben replied easily.

It was kind of funny. The
two of them had been riding each other all night.

He was feeling his pockets
for a moment, and then pulled out his own little stash of weed.
“Y’all wanna hit one for the road?”

“
Definitely.”
Tasha settled back into her seat.

But Tony was eyeing me. “Why
so quiet, Gabby? I’ll beat her ass for you, you know I
would...”

I saw Ben pause what he was
doing to glance over at me.

I sighed. “No, Tony...you
know how she is.” But in all honesty, if I hadn’t been completely
convinced that Ben had zero interest in Michelle, I would have been
a lot angrier.

Ben settled back in to focus
on the joint he was rolling up. “That’s funny, ‘cause...speakin’ of
beatin’ some ass, Gabriela...you know he would.”

Tony’s eyes darted over
toward Ben in mock fury. “What the fuck?” His diva claws were out,
along with his perverted mind.

“
I
don’t think he meant it like that, Tony...” I chuckled.

Ben sucked his teeth, and
laughed. “Dude...wasn’t you all about ready to beat the shit out of
me in the mall a few weeks ago?” He eyed him questioningly, and
then sealed the joint.

Tony’s jaw dropped and he
glanced over at me. “You told him about that?”

I couldn’t help a little
smile at Ben finally making light of it. I shrugged my shoulders
innocently.

“
It’s cool,
though,” Ben said, lighting up slowly. “I get that you was just
lookin’ out for your girl –” He took a deep pull on the joint and
then passed it over to Tasha, “– but if it actually had been me
that day you and I woulda had some words...”

Tony laughed. “The other you
– your double – he had a few words of his own, right
Gab?”

“
Yeah, he would,”
Ben didn’t seem surprised. “But he’s not my double...and he has a
fuckin’ temper.”

I eyed him. “And you don’t?”
I was curious.

“
Not like that,”
he answered simply.

I got up from my chair and
headed over to Ben then to pass him the joint and collapsed down on
the couch next to him, where I had been waiting to be all
night.

“
Finally...” I
sighed, lifting my feet up onto the coffee table and leaning back
into the cushions. “I’m done hosting. You can all go home
now.”